The 2001 Portuguese presidential election was held on 14 January. The victory of incumbent president

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th president of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. A member of the Socialist Party, a party which he led between 1989 a ...

was never in doubt and the turnout was therefore quite low (49.71%). Again, the incumbent president was reelected, like what happened with

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th pres ...

and

Ramalho Eanes Ramalho is a Portuguese surname. Ramalho may refer to: People * João Ramalho (1493–1580), Portuguese explorer *Ramalho Ortigão (1836–1915), Portuguese writer * Rosa Ramalho (1888–1977), Portuguese ceramist * José Ramalho (rower) (1901–?u ...

. As the re-election of the left-wing president was almost certain, both the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portu ...

and the Left Bloc, the latter for its first time, presented their own candidates, as their support against the right-wing candidate was not necessary. The

Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers The Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat ( pt, Partido Comunista dos Trabalhadores Portugueses/Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado, PCTP/MRPP) is a Maoist political party in P ...

also presented its own candidate for the first time in its history, Garcia Pereira. On the right, Ferreira do Amaral was supported by the two major parties, the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

and the People's Party which, again, could not achieve their old objective of electing a right-wing president for the first time since the Carnation Revolution.

Procedure

Any Portuguese citizen over 35 years old has the opportunity to run for president. In order to do so it is necessary to gather between 7500 and 15000 signatures and submit them to the

Portuguese Constitutional Court The Constitutional Court ( pt, Tribunal Constitucional, ) is a special court, defined by the Portuguese Constitution as part of the judicial branch of the Portuguese political organization. Unlike the rest of the country's courts, the Constituti ...

. According to the

Portuguese Constitution The present Constitution of Portugal was adopted in 1976 after the Carnation Revolution. It was preceded by a number of constitutions including the first one created in 1822 (following the Liberal Revolution of 1820), 1826 (drawn up by King ...

, to be elected, a candidate needs a majority of votes. If no candidate gets this majority there will take place a second round between the two most voted candidates.

Candidates

, President since 1996 and eligible for a second term, leader of the PS between 1989 and 1992, supported by the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

; *Joaquim Martins Ferreira do Amaral, former minister of public works of Cavaco Silva government between 1990 and 1995, supported by the

and by the People's Party; * António Abreu, alderman in Lisbon between 1997 and 2001, supported by the

; *

Fernando Rosas Fernando José Mendes Rosas (born 18 April 1946, in Lisbon) is a Portuguese historian, professor, and politician. Early life and education Rosas was born on 18 April 1946. He studied at Pedro Nunes secondary school, and in 1961, he joined ...

, Portuguese academic and politician, supported by the Left Bloc; * Garcia Pereira, Secretary-General of the

PCTP/MRPP The Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat ( pt, Partido Comunista dos Trabalhadores Portugueses/Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado, PCTP/MRPP) is a Maoist political party in P ...

;

Unsuccessful candidacies

There were also four candidates rejected by the

for not complying with the legal requirement of being proposed by 7500 voters: * Pedro Maria Braga; * Maria Teresa Lameiro; * Josué Rodrigues Pedro; * Manuel João Vieira; These four candidates were present in the draw of the ballot position, but did not appear in the final ballot.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polls

Results

Summary of the 14 January 2001

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

presidential election results , - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" colspan="2" rowspan="2", Candidates !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Supporting parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan="2", First round , - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;", Votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;", % , - , style="width:10px;background-color:#FF66FF;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:right;" , 2,401,015 , style="text-align:right;" , 55.55 , - , style="width:5px;background-color:#FF9900;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Ferreira do Amaral , style="text-align:left;" ,

, People's Party , style="text-align:right;" , 1,498,948 , style="text-align:right;" , 34.68 , - , style="width:5px;background-color:red;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" , António Abreu , style="text-align:left;" ,

Ecologist Party "The Greens" The Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( pt, Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes", , PEV) is a Portuguese eco-socialist political party. It is a member of the European Greens and a founding member of the European Federation of Green Parties. It was the ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 223,196 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.16 , - , style="width:5px;background-color:#8B0000;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" , Left Bloc , style="text-align:right;" , 129,840 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.00 , - , style="width:5px;background-color:#CC0000;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

António Garcia Pereira António Pestana Garcia Pereira is a Portuguese lawyer and politician, former leader of the Maoist PCTP/MRPP The Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat ( pt, Partido Comunista dos Trabalhado ...

, style="text-align:left;" ,

Portuguese Workers' Communist Party The Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat ( pt, Partido Comunista dos Trabalhadores Portugueses/Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado, PCTP/MRPP) is a Maoist political party in P ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 68,900 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.59 , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 4,321,899 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , - , style="text-align:right;" colspan="3" , Blank ballots , width="65" tyle="text-align:right;" , 82,391 , width="40" tyle="text-align:right;" , 1.85 , - , style="text-align:right;" colspan="3" , Invalid ballots , width="65" tyle="text-align:right;" , 45,510 , width="40" tyle="text-align:right;" , 1.02 , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 4,449,800 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=3, Registered voters/turnout , , 8,950,905, , 49.71 , - , colspan=5 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

File:Pt plelection pr 2001.PNG, Strongest candidate by electoral district. (Azores and Madeira not shown) File:Most Voted Candidates in the Portuguese Presidential Elections 2001 by Municipality.png, Strongest candidate by

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

References

* *

Notes

External links

Portuguese Electoral Commission

NSD: European Election Database - Portugal
publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2010